System and methods for facilitating transactions on, and personalizing web pages of, third party web sites

• US 7,966,259 B1
• Filed: 12/09/1999
• Issued: 06/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Bui, Hong Q.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hewitt; Calvin Loyd
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHERR, CRISTINA O
• Application Number:
  US09/457,839
• Time in Patent Office: 4,212 Days
• Field of Search: 705 50- 59, 705/7, 705/24, 705/25, 705/40, 380 23- 25
• US Class Current: 705/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers

Abstract

Customers make purchases from online merchants using personal information, such as payment and shipping information, stored with an online information service. The merchants may optionally report information about each customer'"'"'s purchases back to the information service, which may incorporate the information into a history page that is accessible to the customer. The information service may also use the aggregated purchase history data to generate an “interests” profile for the customer, which may be disseminated to the merchants and used to customize their web sites. The web pages of the merchants may include a reference to an object, such as a graphic, that is served by the information service. For customers that are registered with the information service, this object may be customized with the name of the customer, and may be selectable by the customer to make single-action purchases.

Claims

1. A system for providing a server-side wallet service, the system comprising:

a service web site that provides functionality for users to register with the wallet service and to provide customer information and authentication information for use of the wallet service, said customer information including payment information for making purchases from merchant web sites that support customer use of the wallet service; and

a server system that authenticates registered users of the wallet service and disseminates the customer information of the registered users to the merchant web sites in response to user requests, the server system thereby allowing registered users of the wallet service to make purchases from the merchant web sites using previously-specified customer information;

wherein the server system is responsive to a request to transfer the customer information of a registered user to a selected merchant web site by at least (1) using the authentication information of the registered user to authenticate the registered user, and (2) if the registered user is successfully authenticated, sending customer information of the registered user to the selected merchant web site to permit the merchant web site to transact a sale to the registered user, whereby the system enables the registered user to make a purchase from the selected merchant web site without having a preexisting account with the selected merchant web site;

and wherein the server system maintains a log of purchases made by the registered user from each of a plurality of merchant web sites, uses the log to generate an interests profile for the registered user, and disseminates the interests profile to the merchant web sites to allow the merchant web sites to provide personalized content to the registered user.

2. The system as in claim 1, wherein the customer information of the registered user includes shipping information of the registered user.

3. The system as in claim 1, wherein the server system supports an ability for registered users to make single-action purchases from merchant web sites.

4. The system as in claim 1, wherein the server system provides the registered user online access to the log.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the log includes information about transfers of the customer information of the registered user to specific merchant web sites.

5. A method for facilitating online transactions between users and online merchants, the method comprising:

storing customer information for each of a plurality of registered users in a database of a computer system, said customer information including payment information of registered users;

receiving, by the computer system, a request that the customer information of a registered user be provided to a selected merchant web site system, said request generated in response to an action performed by the registered user while accessing the merchant web site system;

receiving, by the computer system, authentication information submitted by the registered user;

verifying, by the computer system, that the authentication information submitted by the registered user is valid; and

in response to determining that the authentication information submitted by the registered user is valid, transmitting customer information of the registered user from the computer system to the selected merchant web site system to allow the registered user to make a purchase from the merchant web site system using previously specified information stored in the database;

whereby the registered user may make a purchase from the selected merchant web site system without having a preexisting account with the selected merchant web site system;

wherein the customer information of the registered user transmitted to the merchant web site system further includes an interests profile that reflects purchases made by the registered user from each of a plurality of online merchants, such that the merchant web site system may personalize web site content for the registered user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the customer information of the registered user includes shipping information of the registered user.

7. A method of enabling a user to make a purchase from a merchant web site with which the user has not set up an account, the method comprising:

registering the user with an information service, wherein registering the user comprises obtaining a name of the user and payment information of the user, and storing the name and payment information on an information service server, wherein the information service server belongs to a domain other than a domain of the merchant web site;

storing a cookie on a computer of the user, wherein the cookie corresponds to a domain of the information service server;

providing, in a web page of the merchant web site and in conjunction with a description of a purchasable item, a reference to a graphic served by the information service server, such that when a browser running on the computer of the user retrieves the web page, the browser is caused to request the graphic from, and transmit the cookie to, the information service server; and

at the information service server, in response to receiving the cookie and a request for the graphic from the computer of the user, returning to the computer of the user a single-action purchase graphic indicating that the item may be purchased with a single selection action, said single-action purchase graphic being selectable by the user to purchase the item.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the single-action purchase graphic includes a name of the user.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the single-action purchase graphic includes a field for the user to enter a password to be submitted to the information service server.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the web page is encoded such that, when the user selects the single-action purchase graphic, a merchant identifier and an identifier of the item are transmitted from the computer of the user to the information service server.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising, at the information service server, responding to user selection of the single-action purchase graphic by transmitting at least the name and payment information of the user to a computer of the merchant web site.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, at the information service server, responding to user selection of the single-action purchase graphic by transmitting shipping information of the user to the computer of the merchant web site.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising, at the information service server, responding to user selection of the single-action purchase graphic by charging the user for the item.

14. A method of personalizing a web page of a web site, the method comprising:

sending a cookie to a computer of a user for storage thereon, wherein the cookie corresponds to a domain of a server that has access to at least a name of the user, said domain being different from a domain of the web site so that the cookie is not transmitted to the web site;

providing, within coding of the web page, a reference to a graphic served by the server, such that when a browser retrieves the web page, the browser is caused to request the graphic from the server; and

when a browser running on the computer of the user retrieves the web page from the web site and sends a resulting request for the graphic to the server, responding to the request by at least;

(a) using the cookie transmitted with the request to identify the name of the user, (b) incorporating the name of the user into an image, and (c) returning the image to the user computer for display within the web page.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the image is a single-action purchase graphic that is adapted to be selected by the user to complete a purchase of an item represented within the web page.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the image includes a field for the user to enter a password to be submitted to the information service server system.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising, at the server, responding to user selection of the image by transmitting at least the name and payment information of the user to the web site.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising, at the server, responding to user selection of the image by charging the user for an item represented within the web page.